Belgium’s Helvoet Pharma invests Rs 120 crore in Pune unit

MUMBAI: Belgian Pharma major, Helvoet Pharma, on Thursday said that it has invested Rs 120 crore to set up its first greenfield production facility in the Khandala industrial area on the Pune-Bengaluru Highway, near Pune.

The plant, spread across 36,000 square metres, will come up in the newly-developed MIDC Special Economic Zone (SEZ)and will serve as a strategic hub for exports to European countries, a press release issued here stated. The plant will manufacture components for primary packaging of parenteral pharmaceutical and diagnostic drugs and produce 4-billion components at full capacity by 2014-end.

The production facility will be equipped with the state-of-the-art infrastructure to meet Helvoet Pharma’s global standards of production, said Dr Paul J Haelg CEO and head technical components of Daetwyler, Helvoet’s parent company.

“Helvoet Pharma’s decision to build its own manufacturing plant in India has been made to leverage the country’s position as the centre of excellence for generic and branded pharmaceutical products. India has the highest number of US FDA approved plants outside the USA and is expected to become a significant healthcare consumer market,” Dr Paul J Haelg, CEO and head technical components of Daetwyler, Helvoet’s parent company said.

The production facility will be fully-equipped with state-of-the-art infrastructure to meet Helvoet Pharma’s global standards of production, he said.